Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Kara Mia

Reviewed by Michael Reuben August 31, 2016

It's hard to imagine why The CW initially turned down Supergirl, and not just because it's peopled by what one character describes as "the attractive yet non-threatening, racially diverse cast of a CW show". Looks aside, this recent entry in TV's DC Universe feels tailor-made for a network that specializes in fictional outlets for youthful Weltschmerz. Like so many CW heroes and heroines, past and present, Supergirl's millennials routinely struggle with growing pains, job insecurity and romantic melodrama, while simultaneously answering duty's call to save the world. The CW eventually rectified its mistake by quickly snapping up Supergirl after a successful first season on CBS, which decided the show was too expensive. Supergirl is scheduled to return on Monday, October 16, 2016, thereby joining The CW's existing cluster of live-action DC series.

Created by Ali Adler (Chuck) and the team of Greg Berlanti and Andrew Kreisberg (who gave us Arrow and The Flash), Supergirl has multiple constituencies to satisfy. It has to offer something new to diehard fans who are intimately familiar with the comic book canon from which the show derives, as well as newer fans who know the so-called "DCU" primarily from more recent TV incarnations. At the same time, it has to remain accessible to newcomers who know little or nothing of the DCU, especially among the young female demographic that is the show's target audience (it's appointment viewing for one of my best friend's two teenage daughters). And it has to keep viewers' attention with the requisite twists, reveals, cliffhangers and big events that have become essential components of successful episodic TV. Throughout Supergirl's inaugural season, one can sense the creative team struggling to find the right blend of elements to serve these diverse requirements, and they succeed more than they fail.

Kara Zor-El (Melissa Benoist) was launched into space from a dying Krypton at the same time as her infant cousin, Kal-El, whom Kara was supposed to protect when both reached Earth. But Kara's space pod was stranded for 24 years in the Phantom Zone, where time stood still. By the time Kara reached Earth, Kal-El had already grown up to become Superman. Kara was adopted by Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers (Dean Cain and Helen Slater), who urged her to conceal her powers for her own safety. But Kara spontaneously reveals herself to the world by averting an airline disaster that would have killed her adoptive sister, Alex (Chyler Leigh). Now National City has its own Kryptonian superhero, and Kara must both master her powers and find her place in the world as "Supergirl". Her task is complicated by the discovery that, for the last two years, Alex has been secretly working for the Department of Extra-Normal Operations (or DOE), a covert government agency that monitors aliens like Kara, her cousin and a host of others. Alex was specially recruited to the DOE by its director, Hank Henshaw (David Harewood)—and yes, there's a complicated back story there, which is gradually revealed throughout the season.

Supergirl shifts fluidly among Kara's overlapping roles: her efforts to establish herself as the protector of National City, her work with the DOE and her day job at Catco Worldwide Media as a lowly assistant to imperious media mogul Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), whose resemblance to Miranda Priestley in The Devil Wears Prada is certainly no accident (though Cat Grant has snappier dialogue). It's a tribute to Melissa Benoist's performance that she is believable as both a young woman and a superhero, rapidly calibrating Kara's reactions and demeanor to whatever the situation requires with an apparent ease that recalls the late Christopher Reeve's facility in juggling Superman and his secret identity as Clark Kent.

Kara's enemies are both human and superhuman. Chief among the former is Maxwell Lord (Peter Facinelli), a smirking tech billionaire whose role evolves throughout the season. The season's main super-villain is a fellow Kryptonian, Kara's Aunt Astra (Laura Benanti), who was sentenced to the Phantom Zone after a failed coup on Krypton and now has a similar plan for Earth. The conflict between Kara and her aunt is part power struggle, part family feud, since it was Kara's mother, Alura, who condemned Astra to imprisonment. (Benanti also plays Alura, who appears in flashbacks and holographic projections.)

Outside the DOE, Kara relies on her support group of Alex, with whom she shares an apartment, and two fellow employees at Catco to whom she reveals her dual identity. Winn Schott (Jeremy Jordan) is Catco's IT expert, whom Kara considers her best friend, although he would like to be more. Photojournalist James Olsen (Mehcad Brooks) is newly arrived from Metropolis, where his relationship with Superman has provided him with special insight into Kryptonians. Kara's cousin, the Man of Steel himself, offers encouragement from afar, but in Season 1 his participation is limited to text messages and a few glimpses of a distant or blurred figure. (In Season 2, Superman will reportedly play a larger role.)

Supergirl gets a lot of things right, providing Kara with an array of challenges, both personal and professional, including her sadness over the loss of her home world, which she, unlike her cousin, actually remembers. The alternation of villains-of-the-week with recurring adversaries gives the series variety, and the offices at Catco are a reliable source of comic relief, usually from Cat Grant herself. The superhero stunts and effects are generally high-quality, especially given the limits of a TV budget.

Then there are the missteps. As a character, James Olsen has little to do besides tell Kara about her illustrious cousin, show her the Fortress of Solitude and provide an unavailable heartthrob for whom Kara can pine. The situation becomes even more of a CW soap opera when Olsen reconnects with his former girlfriend, Lucy Lane (Jenna Dewan Tatum), Lois' younger sister, while secretly casting his eye in Kara's direction. And don't get me started on Lucy herself, who is supposed to be a tough career woman but follows Olsen to National City like a puppy dog and switches so rapidly back and forth between the military (her father's a general) and civilian life that the character loses all credibility. An additional love interest appears mid-season in the person of Cat Grant's estranged son Adam, but the subplot is awkwardly shoehorned into the series and seems designed primarily to "humanize" Cat (and, possibly, to give Benoist a chance to act with her husband, Blake Jenner, who plays Adam).

Season 1's gravest error lies in overplaying its running theme of "family". In theory it's a great idea, because Kara has multiple families, and her loyalties are often conflicted among the natural family she recalls from Krypton (of whom the only survivors are now her evil aunt and Superman), her adoptive family on Earth (which has secrets) and the surrogate "family" of friends and allies gathered around her (which has its own conflicts and rivalries). But the writers repeatedly hammer on the notion instead of letting it develop naturally, inserting frequent and unnecessary confrontations and declarations about "blood bonds" and family loyalty. In the season finale, Kara and Alex face a timer ticking down to the extinction of humanity, and with just minutes to prevent disaster, they still have to pause for a heart-to-heart talk about sisterly devotion. It's a moment where even the least jaded viewer may be tempted to yell at the screen, "You don't have time for this!"

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Supergirl is shot digitally (on Alexa, according to IMDb). The pilot episode was photographed by cinematographer Michael Barrett (Ted), who established the bright and cheerful comic book style that would be continued by a revolving team of cameramen. Controversy erupted in the Blu-ray.com forum over Warner's decision to squeeze the 20 episodes of Season 1 onto three 1080p, AVC-encoded BD-50s, achieving an anemic average bitrate of approximately 11 Mbps. (By contrast, the company's affiliate, the Warner Archive Collection, spread the 19 episodes of iZombie's second season over four discs, with over twice the average bitrate.) The real story, however, isn't the use of three discs; it's the fact that each of the three has approximately 10 GB of unused space, which means that the episodes have been compressed far more tightly than necessary. Unlike WAC, Warner's TV division seems to cling to the notion that a degree of compression that might be acceptable for streaming is equally suitable for Blu-ray.

Still, in real-world viewing, Supergirl looks quite good, which is a tribute both to the efficiency of the AVC codec and the compressibility of digitally originated material. The show's brightly lit style translates effectively to the medium, with saturated primary colors (Supergirl wears red, white and blue, like her cousin), deep blacks and a palette that contrasts the cool, steely tones of Catco's offices with the warmer hues of Kara's home life (when she has time for it). Detail is almost always good, except for shots with heavy CGI, which tend to be softer. Aside from fleeting instances of aliasing and banding, there do not appear to be any flaws or anomalies, and without access to the original masters for comparison, no one can say for certain whether any filtering has been applied to facilitate compression. Overall, this is a solidly enjoyable video presentation of Supergirl, even though it might (and I stress "might") be possible to achieve a better one with less compression.

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Supergirl's 5.1 soundtrack, encoded in lossless DTS-HD MA, makes good use of the surrounds for flying effects (both machine and superhero) and for Supergirl's various powers and those of her adversaries. At Catco, the low hum of office activity envelops the viewer. Dynamic range is broad, and bass extension has authority. The dialogue is clear and properly localized. The suitably heroic score is by Blake Neely, who does similar duty for Arrow, The Flash and DC's Legends of Tomorrow.

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 1.78:1)
• Disc 1
• 6. Red Faced (1:41)
• Disc 2
• 8. Hostile Takeover (1:06)
• 9. Blood Bonds (3:50)
• 11. Strange Visitor from Another Planet (0:49)
• 13. For the Girl Who Has Everything (0:41)
• Disc 3
• 15. Solitude (2:09)
• 16. Falling (1:45)
• 17. Manhunter (3:00)
• 18. World's Finest (1:25)



• Supergirl: 2015 Comic-Con Panel (disc 3) (1080i; 1.78:1; 14:15): The participants are producers Ali Adler, Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg and Sarah Schechter; actors Benoist ("Kara"), Leigh ("Alex"), Brooks ("James Olsen"), Jordan ("Winn") and Harewood ("Hank Henshaw"); and DC creative director Geoff Johns.



• The Man from Mars (disc 3) (1080p; 1.78:1; 9:37): This featurette profiles a mysterious character whose nature and background are not explored until the season is underway.



• A World Left Behind: Krypton (disc 3) (1080p; 1.78:1; 10:41): Kreissberg, Adler and Dan DiDio of DC Comics discuss the show's visual conception of Kara's home planet.



• Gag Reel (disc 3) (1080p; 1.78:1; 4:06): A typical collection of flubs, goofs and clowning.

Supergirl: The Complete First Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Supergirl's second season promises some interesting developments, including additional crossovers with the Arrowverse (supplementing Season 1's Flash crossover in episode 18, "World's Finest") and an episode to be directed by Kevin Smith entitled "Supergirl Lives" (in tribute to his failed Superman film). If the creative team can just dial back some of the excess romantic and family sentiment, the show could soar. Meanwhile, despite plotting concerns and compression quibbles, the Blu-ray set for Season 1 is recommended.